Pupils join Horsham’s Armistice Day ceremony

Horsham District Council chairman Christian Mitchell lays a wreath at the Armistice Day commemorations.

Published:11:46Friday 11 November 2016

Share this article

Pupils from St Mary’s CE Primary School and Arunside Primary School in Horsham joined dozens of people as the town held a ceremony in the town centre today (November 11) for Armistice Day.

Horsham Branch of the Royal British Legion held the short ceremony at the War Memorial in the Carfax, for those wishing to remember at the ‘eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month’.

Pupils placed crosses at the memorial

Christian Mitchell, chairman of Horsham District Council, laid the first wreath.

This was followed by the planting of Remembrance crosses by children from both schools, plus wreaths by youngsters from Little Monkeys Nursery.

The Rev Jimmy Young, Curate at St Mary’s Church, Horsham, led the prayers.

On Sunday (November 13), the War Memorial in the Carfax will be the focus of this year’s Remembrance Sunday service.

The service will begin at 10.50am led by Canon Guy Bridgewater, Vicar of Horsham. After the arrival of the parade at the War Memorial, the service will start with the hymn ‘O God Our Help in Ages Past’.

This will be followed by The Last Post. The Vicar will then lead the Exhortation.

The two minutes’ silence, in memory of the fallen, will follow at 11am before Christian Mitchell, the chairman of Horsham District Council, lays a wreath on behalf of the people of the Horsham district at the War Memorial.

He will then be followed by Nigel Caplin, chairman of the Royal British Legion Horsham Branch and Jeremy Quin MP.

Representatives of the armed services and youth organisations will then lay their wreaths, each as a mark of solemn respect.

A blessing will mark the end of the War Memorial service.

The Parade Marshall will call the parade to attention and they will then march to the Parish Church of St Mary The Virgin in the Causeway, Horsham, for the Remembrance Sunday Service to which everyone is welcome.

After the service, the parade will leave the Causeway and march back through to the Carfax where the chairman of Horsham District Council and the chairman of the Royal British Legion will take the salute. Working with the Church and district council, the Royal British Legion is the main local organiser of Horsham’s Remembrance Sunday service.